


Free

by Fyre



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-10
Updated: 2013-03-10
Packaged: 2017-12-04 21:29:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/715288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fyre/pseuds/Fyre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Huntsman remembered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Free

He remembered. 

He remembered his heart glowing in a woman - the Mayor - the Queen’s hand. He remembered her words and her commands and her demands that had carried from one world to the next. He remembered being taken, being used, being trapped for so long.

The Huntsman released a trembling breath, leaning heavily against the - desk, his mind provided the word - and tried to piece through the fragments of two lives that were scattered around him.

“Graham?” A voice broke through the crowding memories. “Are you okay?”

Swan. Emma Swan. Child of Snow White. The child who lived because of his sacrifice. He had bought Snow White’s freedom with his own heart, and Snow White had a child, a girl, a baby now grown. Emma. Emma Swan. The woman he loved.

A smile broke onto his face. 

He had set her mother free, and now, she freed him.

“I remember,” he said, awed and dazed by that knowledge.

She looked scared, worried, as he straightened up, remembering what it was to do as he chose, stand as he wanted, breathe as he wished. “Graham?” she said, as if she could see that he was someone other than who she knew. He was, but he also wasn’t. He was Graham and he was the Huntsman, and both parts of him knew that he loved this woman, this Emma Swan. 

“I remember,” he repeated softly, approaching her as he would have a frightened deer. She knew about the book, and now, she would know about the curse, and they would work together and free the others.

She searched his face. “You remember what?”

For a moment, she looked so young, an innocent child, and she had returned him to himself, something he could never repay. He cradled her face in his hands, unable to keep the tears from falling: joy, relief, wonder, release. And she smiled, as bright and joyful as he felt.

“Thank you,” he said softly, wondering what it would be to know this woman as his true self, honest, brave and good. He loved her. It was a human emotion, it was strange and it was unfamiliar to his old self, but burned like fire in his new.

His lips were so close to hers when pain shot through his chest, screaming in him.

His heart.

The Queen still had it.

But as he fell, he knew that if he was to die, he was dying free.


End file.
